Press Release

NEW FROM

HaymarketBooks

WHAT'S MY NAME, FOOL?

Sports and Resistance in the United States

DAVE ZIRIN

I am a baseball fan, and I love this book. It is so refreshing to have a sportswriter who writes with such verve and intelligence, who also has a social conscience, and who refuses to keep those parts of his life separate. This is a rare contribution to social history, something I have been looking for, a sports history that understands how the issues of race and class are inextricable from the world of sports.

Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

This book brilliantly and beautifully makes the connection between sports, politics, and resistance.

Chuck D., Public Enemy

Dave Zirin is an angry young man, and he's not bashful about telling you why, no quarter asked, no holds barred. In his new book, What's My Name, Fool?, he calls out the many inequities he sees on the level playing fields. It's good to read such an impassioned critic taking sport to task in a manner we haven't heard in some time.

Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated, NPR

In What's My Name, Fool? sports writer Dave Zirin shows how sports express the worst and at times the most creative, exciting, and political features of our society. Zirin's sharp and insightful commentary on the personalities, politics, and history of American sports is unlike any sports writing being done today.

Zirin explores how NBA brawls highlight tensions beyond the arena, how the bold stances taken by sports unions can chart a path for the entire labor movement, and the unexplored political stirrings of a new generation of athletes who are no longer content to just "play one game at a time."

What's My Name, Fool? unearths a history of athletes ranging from Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali to Billie Jean King, who charted a new course through their athletic ability and their outspoken views.

Popular sportswriter and commentator Dave Zirin is the editor of the Prince George's Post, for which he writes the weekly column Edge of Sports (edgeofsports.com). He is the regular sports commentator for Air America's national radio show So What Else is News? Zirin is a Senior Writer at Basketball.com and regular columnist for Sports Fan Magazine. Zirin's sports journalism has also appeared in The Source, Common Dreams, The College Sporting News, CounterPunch, AlterNet, The Afro-American, International Socialist Review, The Black Sports Network, War Times, The San Francisco Bay View, and Z Magazine.